Rockets superstar teams up with Taco Bell in top secret Super Bowl ad

Rockets superstar teams up with Taco Bell in top secret Super Bowl ad

The Taco Bell ad is not James Harden's first rodeo. He appears here shooting a commercial for Foot Locker in 2014.
Foot Locker/YouTube

Everyone knows that ads are half the fun of the Super Bowl. For Houstonians, Sunday's Taco Bell ad will be all the more fun with Houston Rockets star James Harden in the spotlight.

Harden joins colorful Forth Worth attorney Bryan Wilson and self-proclaimed alien expert Giorgio A. Tsoukalosa in the ad campaign that will introduce a new top-secret menu item — one that even the fellas are in the dark about. In the sneak peeks on You Tube, the stars are holding a green brick in place of the surprise food item.

The hype is strong. Taco Bell has issued a press release calling it the "biggest food creation yet," but the words in the release are blacked out, so you can't see what the "it" is. Oh, the suspense.

The ad is one of many being teased early, ahead of the Super Bowl game, which airs on February 7.

In January, BrandEating theorized that the menu item was a taco with cheese called a quesalupa, which the company has been testing in Ohio.

Taco Bell is encouraging daredevil customers to pre-order it without knowing what it is: The fast-food chain has a website that lets you buy it ($2.99), where it asks, "Trust us? Then pre-order it now sight unseen, and you’ll get to taste it on Saturday, February 6. That’s two days before the rest of the world."

If you pre-order it, you'll get an email on February 6. You can pick up your order at Taco Bell between 2-4 pm. What culinary trailblazer will be first in this derring-do race?

"Taco Bell's newest innovation is so top secret, even the people in the commercial don't know what it is," the ad says.

Harden speculates that the bricks will serve as a "green screen" with a product to be superimposed on the ad when it airs. AdWeek calls it "a bit of an irritating approach, especially if it just turns out to be a quesalupa."

AdWeek says that comedy dominates the 2016 crop of ads, such as the one for Bud Light starring Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen.